


More Than That

by westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist



Category: The West Wing
Genre: Episode: s07e06 The Al Smith Dinner, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-12-22
Updated: 2005-12-22
Packaged: 2019-05-30 13:09:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15097358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist/pseuds/westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist
Summary: "And if someone had an issue with jackass-dom being a real, you know, thing then they should come spend ten minutes in the company of one Joshua Lyman."





	More Than That

**Author's Note:**

> A copy of this work was once archived at National Library, a part of the [ West Wing Fanfiction Central](https://fanlore.org/wiki/West_Wing_Fanfiction_Central), a West Wing fanfiction archive. More information about the Open Doors approved archive move can be found in the [announcement post](http://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/8325).

**More Than That**

**by:** Linz

**Character(s):** Josh Lyman, Donna Moss  
 **Pairing(s):** Josh/Donna  
 **Category(s):** Romance  
 **Rating:** TEEN  
 **Episode:** Post-Episodes - 7-06 The Al Smith Dinner  
 **Summary:** "And if someone had an issue with jackass-dom being a real, you know, thing then they should come spend ten minutes in the company of one Joshua Lyman."  
 **Written:** 2005-11-03  
 **Author's Note:** With my very grateful thanks to Christi and Sio for the wonderful beta work! They took this apart and helped me put it back together again so that it was, you know, actually readable.  


Donna closed her folder with slightly more force than usual but didn’t leave her seat. An hour-long meeting would usually be a piece of cake considering her levels of concentration, but today that hour had seemed interminable. 

As much as she loved being here; something was missing. Something she had expected to feel again now that she was working for someone she absolutely knew was another 'Real Thing'. There was no doubt in her mind what-so-ever that Matt Santos belonged in the Oval Office. He radiated high-voltage. The campaign was gathering momentum with her job reflecting that. It was challenging, demanding and tested her skills every single day. Professionally speaking, she was totally validated and fulfilled. 

It just wasn't *right*. 

She even knew what was missing, how could she not? It was painfully obvious to anyone who cared to look. 

It was Josh. 

Yes, they were rubbing along amicably now. They spoke more than stunted sentences laden with subtext and once in a while smiled a genuine smile that actually reached their eyes. They were model professionals and she hated it.

The Josh of old was all energy and bounce. His spark lit all within his radius. The Josh she was working with now had lost that and she understood why. Sure he had moments of fire and passion, but not nearly enough and never with her. And no matter what she did she couldn't seem to pierce that wall of calm, polite professionalism he was hiding behind. It almost made her wish for the same narrow-minded, egotistical jackass-dom he treated her too the day she was formally hired as spokesperson for the Santos/McGarry campaign. 

This space between them, the courteous reserve, was driving her insane. This wasn't what she and Josh were and it almost broke her heart to think it was what they had let themselves become.

She'd tried reasoning with him. She'd tried just getting on with her job and letting her ability speak for her. She'd tried almost everything she could think of to break through to him. Nothing had worked! That seemingly impenetrable wall of jackass-dom just got determinedly more resilient. And if someone had an issue with jackass-dom being a real, you know, thing, then they should come spend ten minutes in the company of one Joshua Lyman. 

Yet, for all her – rightful – resentment of his attitude, she knew from past experience that once he'd convinced himself he was right - or even worse, the victim, he was pretty much as inflexible as a republican congress when faced with a deficit increase. 

Something had to give because this wasn't what they were - it wasn't how they should be, and both he, she, and on some level the campaign, were suffering because of it.

"Earth to Donna Moss!"

Donna looked up at the remaining person in the room, startled and a little embarrassed at being caught daydreaming. 

"Huh?"

"Please tell me that you respond to the press corps with more eloquence than that? Actually, tell Lou, you don't report to me." 

At some point later, she'd realise that that, right there, was what pushed her over the edge with him. It wasn't something dramatic or profound; it was just that one comment. The last push that she needed to actually do more than consider the last option she had for dealing with him. The sure-fire way she had come up with to break through to the man trapped within walls of his own making. She'd only lacked the courage before. Now? Not so much.

"Okay, that’s it!" She dropped her folder onto the hardwood table and started over to him. 

The movement surprised him; she could tell by the way his eyebrows--quite obviously going against his attempts to keep his face neutral--hit his hairline. 

Not unlike she had done many times before, she grabbed his forearm and pulled him behind her, out of the conference room door and through the outer office of the campaign headquarters, totally uncaring of the stares they were getting. 

"Donna! What the hell…?"

She didn’t turn around at the sound of his voice, she didn’t answer him; she just tightened her grip on his arm and walked–-and pulled-–faster. 

He seemed to realise her determination as she felt the muscle in his forearm loosen-–which some part of her found to be a shame, those arms were not to be sneezed at-–and he became almost passive to her. 

He was trying to out-psych her before their inevitable confrontation. It was a totally "Josh" thing to do. A passive aggressive, 'I don't care enough to be bothered about this' move that he knew she'd read. Unfortunately for him, she'd long since figured out that Josh often did that when he was unsure of a situation. It was his cover, his protection. It was something he had been using on her for too long now and that was going to change.

When they finally reached their destination, she felt the faint hesitation from him. This room already held significance for them. Only this time there was no Lou to interrupt and judging by the reaction from the staffers to her unspoken command, nothing short of a global catastrophe was going to interrupt them this time.

Once there, Donna stopped. Instead of dragging him into the room, she opened the door, let go of his arm, moved behind him, and placed both hands flat on his back then pushed. She needed every trick in the book to get him back into this particular room with her and if that meant literal interpretation of 'pushing' then so be it.

Stepping in after him, she closed to door with a force designed to turn him around to face her. Not that he did of course; he'd been playing games like this for too long to fall for that one. No, once he had regained his balance from the *unfortunate* stumble he took through the threshold, he stood with his back to her, totally unyielding. It was an action intended to force her to walk around to face him. She smiled a little, deciding to give him this one and step as casually as possible in front of him. That meant that the back of her legs touched the cover on the bed behind her, an understated ploy from a worthy opponent-–she couldn’t retreat. A small flicker of victory lit his eyes—little did he know that his overconfidence was going to work for her. 

She didn’t say anything, meeting his eyes with her own unwavering gaze. 

Knowing him as she did, she knew that he would break this impasse first. He always did, especially now, to stop her reading him. Because he knew, despite his best attempts, that his eyes were too honest when it came to her. 

"Donnatella, didn't your mother ever warn you about men, a bed and you?"

With one glib comment, her plan of calm sophistication took a direct hit. Any combination of her, a bed and Josh made her want to do a lot of things that would make her mother faint dead away. 

As impatient as always, he glanced at his watch and prompted, "Look, Donna, I have a busy…."

Her interruption came swiftly, his words bringing her back to the task at hand. It really was now or never. "We have to fix this." She motioned at the space in between them. "It's affecting me…." 

Without losing contact with his eyes, she reached for the button on her jacket, undid it and nonchalantly shrugged it from her shoulders before dropping it to the bed behind her. 

"It's affecting you," she didn’t have to force her voice to catch a little, it did that all by itself as her hands unerringly found her top button and slipped it out of his hole. "And it's affecting this campaign…." 

With that she had the second button of her blouse undone and moved to the third. As it too slid open she watched as his eyes involuntarily slipped from hers to follow the progress of her hands. 

It was time to play her ace card. "So I figure we should just get it out of the way." She was calm and collected, keeping her voice carefully modulated so that it showed nothing but a cool resolve and total confidence in herself and her actions. 

Josh's gaze suddenly snapped back to hers, his eyes narrowing as his mind struggled to process her words and actions. 

"Get *what* out of the way?" 

She smiled at the barely there squeak that he couldn’t quite keep out of his tone as she unbuttoned the fourth button on her blouse. 

"*This*, Josh." Again she motioned between them, only this time the action caused her blouse to gape strategically thanks to the top half being unbuttoned. She didn’t need words to have him understand her subtext. She never did. But she still needed to push him. "Let's resolve this." 

"Resolve?" his voice was lower now, husky. 

A naturally playful smile curved her lips as his eyes flickered between her face and her chest. 

"The sexual tension," she began in light, playful and not just a little bit patronising tone while she took a step towards him. "Everything always boils down to sexual tension. Honestly, Josh, you should watch more than CNN and MSNBC on that television of yours. You never know, you might learn something."

She was rewarded by a mute stare from him, his eyes asking the question that it seemed his mouth could not form. 

"There is a well accepted fact common to all TV shows be they comedy, drama or even science fiction," close enough to him now, she reached her hand and began to fondle the knot of his tie. She watched as his Adam's apple bobbed and she pressed her advantage by bringing her other hand up to join her first in loosening, and subsequently pulling off, his tie and dropping it to the floor.

"When two characters finally resolve their sexual tension, the previous *unresolved* sexual tension obviously disappears and thus *all* tension, sexual or otherwise, is no longer a problem."

"Sexual tension?" he croaked as her fingers found his top button and carelessly undid that too. Every muscle in his body was taut while she purposefully and shamelessly took advantage of the natural reactions they had always had to each other in close proximity.

"Of course," she carried on as if he hadn't spoken and as if she wasn't in anyway shape or form affected by her actions and, well, him, "that usually signals the end of that couple as a couple in the show, or worse the show jumps the shark…"

"Shark?" 

She let out a small laugh, pleased that she wasn't giving away her longing to run her fingers through his hair, pull him close and do some of those things that would make her mother faint. It wasn't helping that he was genuinely confused at this point because when he was confused he was utterly adorable. But she was on a roll, her confidence increasing with each moment that she kept him monosyllabic. Adorable or not, she had an agenda.

"But, I'm hoping in our case it will mean the sexual tension will just disappear so that we can work together again, like we used to, without all *this* getting in the way." Her voice curled around the words, adding emphasis as her hands drifted to his second button. 

It must have been the slight contact of her fingers against his skin that did it because she didn’t get a chance to actually undo the second button before he jumped back from her as he found his voice enough to explode a shocked protest of, "Donna!"

Knowing that he was totally off balance but was trying to rally himself, she allowed herself another small smile. Rallying was not on the agenda, at least not for him, yet. So taking a bold, uncompromising step, she followed his retreat. 

In self-defence, he took a further step away from her. It was almost comical this advance and retreat thing they had going. She kept advancing; he kept retreating right until his back hit the door and he was finally trapped. It was exactly where she wanted him, afterall, Josh only ever acted when he was cornered. 

"Don’t tell me you don’t want this, Josh, because quite frankly, I wouldn't believe you." It was almost a purr, her own emotions firmly seeping into her actions.

"No!" He almost shouted, "I mean, yes!" She bit her lip to stop the laugh as she watched him shake his head in aggravation, trying his best to clear it enough to actually make sense. "I mean, God, Donna…." He let his head fall back until a dull thud suggested contact between his skull and wood. "I don’t know what I mean!" 

Confused, frustrated and still totally off balance. Good! That was just how she needed him to be. So she kept moving closer to him, until only a hairsbreadth separated them. 

"Exactly," she soothed, as her hand stroked an entirely involuntary path across his chest. "You're affected; I'm very definitely affected, so we should just…"

"Wait! You're 'very definitely' affected?" 

Oops. She'd let her mouth get carried away there and trust Josh to pick up on that. No matter, she had gotten very good at thinking on her feet this last little while. 

"Have I not just been saying that?" Her smiled was benevolent–-and again, not just a little patronising. "Really, Joshua, your listening skills, not so much improved." She reached once more for that second button.

"*You're* affected." This time is was a statement from him, rather than a question. This could get dangerous for her.

"Yes, Josh!" The exasperation was clear in her voice; her plan did not call for Josh to understand anything quite yet. She needed to distract that mind of his and distract it quickly. So she slipped the second button from its hole and, purposefully this time, let her fingers brush the skin she revealed as she moved to the third. "Lou said we needed to sort this out, we should do what she says…." She wanted to inflect sultry into her tone, but the touch of skin on skin had rendered that attempt late in the extreme. It seemed her voice had already got that, in a big way.

"Donna, as much as this…as I…" There was the thud of head on wood again. She smirked as she popped button three, but just as her fingers touched button four strong hands grabbed her wrists and their grip made it clear than no further movement was going to occur. "Will you just stop!" 

Her pout was masking the grin at his desperation. The pout was good though; he was in no way as impervious to the pout as he liked to think. 

She felt the deep breath he took before he spoke. "It's…you are…God, Donna, you're…*we're*…more than that, damnit!" 

It was all there, finally, his eyes open to every emotion she'd made him feel, all the tension, good, bad or otherwise that had been flying between them for more years than she cared to count. She actually done it, she'd cracked that wall of self-protective jackass-dom and, at last, gotten him to face it. All that remained was to push him that one last step and she knew just how. 

"Don’t you want me?"

That indeed did it. He shot from his trapped position against the door, dropping her hands in his haste as he stood before her, all energy and passion. She could feel the vitality and excitement flow off him in waves as he spoke from his new position by the bed, his voice as passionate as his words.

"Are you insane? Of course I want you! But this thing between us is more than...*that*…Way more!"

She'd missed this. The buzz you got just from being in his presence when he was like this; when his whole body held a charge that sparked anyone within a ten-foot radius. It had been too long since she had seen it, let alone felt it, and the realization was as poignant as it was a victory. 

"And I don’t want the first time we do…that…to be about fixing us! About resolving some unresolved whatever so that we can work together again! I want it to be about…God! I want it to be about…extending the us!"

"'Extending the us'?" She couldn’t help the smile or the relief. He was back, in a typically Josh-like statement, he was back. That shell of the man that she'd seen on this campaign was actually gone and they were dealing more honestly that they had for a very long time. *This* was what had been missing. This was the Josh she knew and, yes, loved--and she couldn't take her eyes off him.

"Yes, extending the us!" He was bouncing on his toes as he rushed on. "So this, here, now?" He copied her earlier movement and motioned between them. She was sure someone somewhere would find their reversal of their earlier positions metaphorical, but not her, not right now. 

His hands reached for hers, gently this time, as his voice hit that husky lilt once again. "Not here, Donna, not now and not like this." The smile that spread across his face had never failed to send her weak at the knees. "And that's not 'no' forever, because really, _neither_ of us believes that. But right now? No. Because…."

"We're more than that?" She couldn’t help her interruption.

"Yes. We are."

As to which of them had the brightest smile at that point really was anyone's guess--not that either cared. They were too busy bathing in a moment so precious and so real that they didn’t much care about anything beyond the sight and smell and feel of the other. 

Finally, with one sweet brush of his thumbs across her wrist, he let go and they both sank back to reality. Donna dropped her smiling eyes to her blouse as he reached forward and began buttoning it back up. Not that she was going to return the favour. The longer she got to ogle at his chest the better!

Once he made her presentable again, she reached past him and plucked her jacket from the bed. Straightening, she felt their wonderful, unique tension like a crackle of electricity and faced him once more. 

"I should really write to some TV company somewhere, I have proof that resolving tension doesn't always mean the end of the line."

He returned her smile with a devilish grin. "I agree, in fact, some might say the resolving is necessary, needed even…." 

"For harmonious working conditions and the good of the campaign?" 

"Absolutely, I'm all for harmonious working conditions." He happily agreed as she turned herself to the door. She was half way through it when she heard him. 

"We’ve only just begun our resolution, Donnatella."

Smiling a mile wide and without turning back to him gave her response.

"I know, Joshua."

The End.  



End file.
